Baylor slides in latest ESPN Bracketology projections following loss to Memphis

The Bears will have to rebound in the coming games.

Dec 6, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Baylor Bears head coach Scott Drew reacts against the Memphis Tigers during the first half at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images | Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

Every Tuesday morning, ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi releases an updated version of his NCAA Men's basketball tournament Projections. On this week’s projection, the Baylor Bears (6-2) dropped a couple seeds after losing to Memphis (4-4) by seven points this past Saturday.

In the previous two projections, Baylor sat comfortably as a seven seed but the loss to Memphis puts them closer to the bubble as one of the last four byes. This version of the bracket put the Bears in the East region for the first time and has them matched up with #7 seed Iowa (8-1) in Philadelphia. The only time Baylor has played Iowa on the hardwood was in the 2013 NIT Tournament Championship, which Baylor won by 20.

Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

This iteration of the East region is loaded, and Baylor would have their work cut out for them. Here are the other teams in the East region (ordered by seed number): Duke, UConn, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Texas Tech, USC, Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, Saint Louis, Belmont, UNC Wilmington, Arkansas State, Stephen F. Austin and Youngstown State. Duke and UConn are currently #3 and #5 in the latest AP poll; Vanderbilt, Illinois and Texas Tech are all ranked in the top 20. The East region is paired with the West region, which has current AP #1 Arizona, Purdue, Houston and North Carolina.

The Big Ten has the most teams with 11, followed by the Big 12 with nine teams and ACC/SEC both have eight teams in the Big Dance. Baylor’s conference schedule is littered with landmines as eight potential tourney teams are on their schedule (rankings based off latest AP Poll): #1 Arizona, #4 Iowa State, #7 Houston, #10 BYU, #11 Louisville, #16 Texas Tech, #19 Kansas and Oklahoma State. They have already played one potential tourney team in #22 St. John’s and lost by 15 on 11/25.

Baylor is approaching the final stretch, albeit soft, of their non-conference schedule as they will host Norfolk State (4-6) on Wednesday at Noon, host Alcorn State (1-9) on Friday at 8 p.m. and host Southern (4-5) on Sunday at 1 p.m. Their last non-conference matchup will be on 12/29 when they host Arlington Baptist before starting Big 12 play at TCU (6-3) on January 3.

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